Mikhail Gorbachev Quotes

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Mikhail Gorbachev

Profession : Statesman

Birth : March 2, 1931

Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries.

Mikhail Gorbachev

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth.

Mikhail Gorbachev

A society should never become like a pond with stagnant water, without movement. That's the most important thing.

Mikhail Gorbachev

America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.

Mikhail Gorbachev

I couldn't wait to get to the most powerful position, because I thought then I would be able to fix problems that only the leader can fix. But when I got there, I realized we needed revolutionary change.

Mikhail Gorbachev

What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars.

Mikhail Gorbachev

If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Without perestroika, the cold war simply would not have ended. But the world could not continue developing as it had, with the stark menace of nuclear war ever present.

Mikhail Gorbachev

You cannot put Russia down on its knees and hold it there because Russia will ultimately pull out.

Mikhail Gorbachev

On the day I became Soviet leader, in March 1985, I had a special meeting with the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries and told them: 'You are independent, and we are independent. You are responsible for your policies, we are responsible for ours. We will not intervene in your affairs, I promise you.'

Mikhail Gorbachev

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

Mikhail Gorbachev

I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Political leaders still think things can be done through force, but that cannot solve terrorism. Backwardness is the breeding ground of terror, and that is what we have to fight.

Mikhail Gorbachev

I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century... This is a problem that cannot be postponed.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Sometimes it's difficult to accept, to recognise one's own mistakes, but one must do it. I was guilty of overconfidence and arrogance, and I was punished for that.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism.

Mikhail Gorbachev